Park Bum-shin

Park Bum-shin (; born August 24, 1946) is a South Korean writer.

Life

Park Bum-shin was born in Nonsan, Chungcheongnam-do. Upon his retirement from the academe and the release of his 39th novel My Hand Turns into a Horseshoe, Park moved back to his hometown, where he concentrates only on writing. He also writes his diaries, which he plans to publish.

Work In 1979, Park began serializing his first novel Lie Like a Leaf of Grass (Pullipcheoreom nupda) in the JoongAng Ilbo, which would become known as his signature work. For the work's sensitive, even poetic, descriptions of the losses sustained by the Korean people in the period of rapid urbanization, Park received the 1981 Korean Literature Prize.

In 1979, Park began serializing his first novel Lie Like a Leaf of Grass (Pullipcheoreom nupda) in the JoongAng Ilbo, which would become known as his signature work. For the work's sensitive, even poetic, descriptions of the losses sustained by the South Korean people in the period of rapid urbanization, Park received the 1981 Korean Literature Prize. ), Empty Room (Bin bang) and Namaste (Namseute), Park confirmed his position as a veteran author who incorporates both artistic value and popular elements into his writing.

Amid the crisis of publishing in a post-industrial society, in 2008 Park became the first South Korean veteran novelist to post his novel on the Internet before publishing it in print. His novel Cholatse was serialized in top internet portal Naver for five months where it received 1 million hits. Through the new technology, Park said it was a great pleasure for him to learn the readers' responses to his work.

The popularity of his novels led to 20 subsequent film and television adaptations, which made Park a household name. Among them, Park said he was most excited about the 2012 film A Muse. Adapted from his provocative 2010 novel Eun-gyo in which a poet in his 70s who falls for a high school girl, Park said it reflected his own personal thoughts on aging, human psychology and desire.

"I've always gone for the second best options in my life," Park told reporters at a press meeting held in central Seoul in 2011. "It was the only way to compromise. I had too many things to take care of at once. But from now on, I want writing to be my top priority, nothing else."

Works in Korean (partial) Rabbit and the Submarine (Tokki wa jamsuham, 1978) The Trap (Deot, 1978) A Balloon Flown in the Morning (Achime nallin pungseon, 1979) Sleep Deeper than Death (Jugeumboda gipeun jam, 1979) Winter River and Spring Breeze (Gyeoul gang hanuibaram, 1979) Lie Like a Leaf of Grass (Pullipcheoreom nupda, 1980) Fireworks (Bulkkot nori, 1983) The Forest Never Sleeps (Supeun jamdeulji anneunda, 1985) Fire Nation (Bul-ui nara, 1987) Water Nation (Mul-ui nara, 1988) The Cart Pulled by a White Ox (Heuin so ga ggeuneun soore, 1997) A Filthy Desk (Deoreoun chaeksang, 2003) Empty Room (Bin bang, 2004) Namaste (Namseute, 2005) Cholatse (2008, revised 2015) Eun-gyo (2010) Business (2010) My Hand Turns into a Horseshoe (2011) My Love is Not Yet Over (Essay, 2012) Salt (Sogeum, 2013) Healing (Essay, 2014) Small Landscapes (Sosohan Poongyung, 2014) Wrinkles (Jureum, 2015) You (Dangshin, 2015) Yuri (2017)

Works in English The Trap, in "The Snowy Road and Other Stories"